President Obama once offered former House Speaker John Boehner a "grand bargain" that would incorporate some Republican priorities into a massive reorganization or government spending and society in general, but they didn't bite. Republicans wouldn't give Obama anything he wants even if he gave them some things they wanted like a lower corporate tax rate.
Republicans are going to have to make the same choice now that President Biden is making a similar offer to them.
Biden is reportedly offering the GOP a bargain for establishing a lower, minimum tax rate in exchange for spending less on infrastructure if they will vote for it.
U.S. President Joe Biden offered to scrap his proposed corporate tax hike during negotiations with Republicans on an infrastructure package, two sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday, in what would be a major concession by the Democratic president as he works to hammer out a deal.
Biden offered to drop plans to hike corporate tax rates as high as 28%, and set a minimum tax rate that companies should pay instead at 15%, sources said.
In return, Republicans would have to agree to at least $1 trillion in new infrastructure spending, one source said.
Whether or not this is actually a good deal feels like a secondary question to whether or not Republicans will agree to it. It doesn't matter if it's good or not if they won't.
President Obama's grand bargain was also panned by critics, but in the end it didn't matter because the GOP wouldn't go along with it.
If Republicans still won't budge after Biden offers this level of compromise, he'll have the rhetorical ammunition he needs to move forward with reconciliation. President Obama used this same strategy to pass some of his preferred policies by pushing them into a must-pass government funding bill to avoid a shutdown after the GOP refused to compromise.